Barlesque, Minimize Firefox 4's New Add-on Bar

Firefox 4's new add-on bar and the removal of the old status bar has caused some controversy and quite a misunderstanding amongst Firefox users. The new add-on bar basically integrates the icons that are placed by Firefox add-ons in it or the old status bar. It does lack the ability to display link information when the mouse hovers over a link though.

Barlesque is a new add-on for Firefox 4 that may be useful for users who want more screen-estate but have icons in the add-on bar that they need to access every now and then at least. Barlesque minimizes the Firefox add-on bar to the rightmost or leftmost position so that only the icons of it are displayed.

Even better, there is an option to minimize it further so that only a small icon indicates that the add-on bar is still there and ready for access.

The minimized add-on bar hides the website's contents in that position, which can be inconvenient sometimes. Worse is the fact that it is not fully compatible with some add-ons, like NoScript or Status 4 Evar. The NoScript bar for instance that is sometimes displayed appears beneath the add-on bar which means that it is more difficulty to interact with it.

Status 4 Evar users will notice that the address of a link is not displayed fully, and that there is no way of changing that.

This means that Barlesque is mainly for Firefox users who use add-ons that do not expand the status bar when they display information and for add-ons that do not place notifications at the bottom of the screen. Button interaction on the bar however works as usual.

As mentioned before, Barlesque offers a second mode to minimize the display further. A click on the down arrow in the bar reduces the display to a single arrow in the lower left corner.

The add-on's options contain settings to configure the position of the Barlesque bar, and shortcuts to hide and display the add-on bar.

Barlesque offers a compromise between fully disabling the add-on bar and displaying it fully in the browser. (via)

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.